"Jae, would you like to come with Uncle to the general store?"

Jae smiles. She loves the way her uncle speaks. His words are careful and formal, and he uses such old-fashioned words still, even though he knows no one speaks that way anymore.

She loves the way he doesn't care.

"Y-yes, uncle."

She frowns at the sound of her own words. They are harsh and unsteady, the tones nothing like the smooth Korean that her uncle speaks. She wishes suddenly that she had gone to the Korean school her mother had always wanted her to go to.

But that was a long time ago. Her mother was not here, and Jae herself wasn't even a child anymore. She didn't rely on her mother anymore.

"Jae?"

She shakes her head. What was she thinking? She had come to Korea to let go, and let go she had. The hard part was forgetting. How did she forget the only people she had ever known? She wished that she knew the answer.

"Jae?"

"I'm c-coming, uncle."